Unwavering Bonds: Commemoration
by LoudAutomata16
Summary: Fan-chapter. Years after the events of Unwavering Bonds, Lily Loud, now her brother's age, finds a video of her birthday from many years ago...


**Thanks to OmegaUltra, not just for giving me permission to publish this fan-chapter, but for giving us Unwavering Bonds, the story that inspired this.**

* * *

It wasn't until she finished her homework that Lily Loud noticed how silent the house was.

"Lisa… Lola… Lana…" Lily called out.

The lack of response indicated to the girl what she already suspected; that she was alone in the house. It didn't surprise her, considering where all of her sisters were.

She was always told that, before, when she was still an infant, the house had been filled to the brim with noisy and trouble-making children. But as they all grew older, many of them had left the house, determined to forge their own ways.

It started with Lori, the eldest of the group. She had left soon after she had twins with her boyfriend Bobby. The two now lived together, happily married, raising the pale-haired twins Linka and Liberty. Lori's time with her family had left her prepared to deal with children. Thinking about it, Lily blushed in embarrassment. The twelve year old girl realized it was her accidents that had trained Lori in the arts of changing soiled diapers. Leni, her second oldest sister, lived with them as well, desperately trying to hold down a career after her time at community college.

Luna had taken an alternative route. Rather than enroll in higher education, the rocker had decided to pursue music full-time, starting a band of like-minded musicians, scoring jobs wherever they were available.

Luan, on the other hand, had chosen to keep her passion for comedy as just that; a passion. She was currently studying business in the city. Lily laughed slightly; she could only imagine what nefarious scheme Luan was up to, and what damage she could do with any acquired knowledge of the business world.

Lynn was the final of the sisters that had left. With an athletic scholarship in hand, she attended the same university as Luan. They had a notorious reputation; that they were good when separated, but together they were a menace and a danger to public safety.

Lucy was nineteen, but rather than attend college, she had chosen to take a gap year, in order to, in her words " _sigh_ discover myself and what true love the infinite void has to deliver unto me." The Loud parents disapproved, but they tried to humor her. After all, they didn't want a repeat of the Luna situation by rushing Lucy. So Lucy often spent time elsewhere; mostly at poetry readings and book stores. Lily had no doubt she was very likely heading a vampire novel discussion at that very moment.

The twins attended high school, with Lisa in the same grade as them. Evidently, she felt a need to leave school as soon as possible, and decided to tag along with Lana and Lola. For some mysterious reason, ever since Lisa showed up to their grade, the twins began to receive nigh-perfect scores and grades. The three often spent time out of the house as well; Lana at shelters, Lola at salons, Lisa at…

 _Come to think of it, I don't even know where Lisa spends her days._

And that left her, Lily Loud, the youngest of the family, at the age of twelve, currently sitting on a couch.

All siblings were accounted for.

Well, not all of them.

Lily thought for a second about her family, and remembered the white haired boy that sometimes appeared in pictures with her sisters, and with her when she was one or two years old. She knew his name was Lincoln, but other than his physical features, she knew very little about him.

She knew he had white-hair naturally, not caused by an accident or albinism. She knew he had chipped teeth, that he loved wearing orange, and that he had been prone to disrobing, as was seen in a few pictures. But the moment she brought up the subject of the brother, the other Louds would respond the same way. They would often go through a wide range of facial expressions, starting at shocked and ending at a sad smile, bordering on crying. Then they would say:

"He was… he was… smart and funny, orderly and loving, k…kind and…"

Then tears would start to flow, leaving the youngest Loud regretting that she had asked the question. Her mother had the greatest trouble discussing Lincoln; just mentioning the name would spawn great pools of water in her eyes. From then on, Lily learned to never ask about Lincoln. She never found out more about him, in order to protect her family from the awful feelings that overcame them when discussing their only son/brother.

Lily sighed. _Don't think about it. When you think about Lincoln, you get curious, and when you get curious you ask someone, and when you ask someone, they start crying. Just do something else. Maybe you can see if Mom needs help with something._ "Mom, I finished my homework. Is there anything you need help with?"

Rita came over to her daughter, in her hand a small silver device. Upon closer inspection, Lily saw that it was a video camera.

"Thank you sweetie," the mother said to her child as she patted her head affectionately. Lily felt it made her look childish to be patted, but she would silently admit that she liked it.

"I actually need some help with this camera."

"What do you need?"

"Well, there are… some old videos on this recorder, and I want to upload them to the computer."

Lily shot up. Computers were a specialty of hers. Video games, programming, streaming, anything related to technology, she could manage. So even a task as simple as this was enough to excite her.

"Of course. Do you want me to upload everything?"

Her mother smiled, though for some reason it was less of an enthusiastic or encouraging smile, and more of a smile of someone who was seconds away from breaking down.

"Yes. And Lily?"

"Yes?"

Rita wiped at her eyes. For a flash of a second, Lily saw her face. The smiling and calm face that she was used to was not there. Instead she saw the face of a woman who had been deeply, emotionally affected by something. But then, the second was over. Rita Loud did her best to compose herself, pausing to straighten out her body and face, and looked back at her youngest daughter.

"Make sure… that you watch them before… before you…"

Rita couldn't handle it anymore. Her throat was working against her, as she struggled in vain to continue her sentence. Words betrayed her, so she simply gave her daughter the camera and left the room. Lily could have sworn she heard her parent whisper softly " _You're his age too…_ "

Lily was confused. What could have brought in her mother such an emotional reaction? She was just giving her daughter a chore. Lily considered, for a minute, whether she should go after her mother, but something about the situation urged her to simply obey the orders given to her.

She got to work, plugging the camera into the computer, as video files and photos filled the screen. She was prepared to just abandon the camera and let it do its function, but her mother's orders filled her head once again.

 _"Make sure… that you watch them before… before you…"_

Lily looked at the videos. There were three of them. Technically four, but the fourth video was so very corrupted, so she didn't count it. Even she couldn't save it.

She then looked at the names of the three video files. The first was labeled Cooking with Lynn Sr. It was a silly little clip of her father, cooking some of his famous Lynnsagna before he was rudely interrupted by his daughters, causing him to slip on one of his tomatoes. She chuckled a bit.

D _ad is so goofy sometimes._

The next was labeled My Love. It was simply Lucy, reading one of her poems. Lily had seen her Gothic sister read her poetry before, so she decided to skip it after a few seconds.

She read the name of the next file and looked at the thumbnail. For a second, her heart stopped.

Lily's Second Birthday!

And in the thumbnail was none other than Lincoln.

The girl hesitated for a second. A video... with Lincoln. She had almost never seen him before, in video or real life, only catching glimpses of him through the occasional old photo. As such, Lily felt more than a little nervous about opening the video. Eventually, though, she summoned her inner strength, took a deep breath and hit the play button.

It started out with Lincoln walking over to the rest of his family, camera following him as he did. Lily saw that she was there amongst the Loud family members.

"Start recording!" Lincoln suddenly shouted. Lily jumped, not only at the surprise of Lincoln's demand, but also because…

This was the first time she had heard his voice.

She reflected on it. The young boy had the voice that matched what she imagined. It was so… soft. She assumed that it was due to his young age, but then came to realize that the boy was speaking in a very particular way.

Tender and loving. Like this was a message he was sending to someone who was still very young.

Then Lily thought back to the title of this clip. _Oh my God. Is this… is this a message from…_

"Hey Lily!" the young man says excitedly, but still with the undertone of tenderness. Lily saw him scoop up her toddler self.

"This is your big brother Lincoln and your family all wishin' you a happy birthday! You turned two today!" She saw him turn to the rest of her sisters, before they all came together and hugged toddler-Lily. She saw her younger self giggle and smile at this, so, in spite of herself, she giggled and smiled as well.

Then Lincoln turned the camera, allowing a Latina girl, about the same age as Lincoln, to enter into the view of the camera. "By the way, this is my friend Ronnie Anne!"

She sees him give Ronnie Anne a hug. "Awwwwww…" Lily went. "They look so good together."

Lincoln's voice interrupted her fawning. "And the guy holding the camera is Clyde!" She saw her brother motion for the camera to be turned around. When it does, Lily sees the familiar face of Clyde McBride, one of Lynn's friends. She didn't know that he was originally friends with Lincoln.

"Hey Lily!" says the young African-American as he gives a little wave. Lily notices that he seems to have a tough time remaining as composed as he wants to.

Clyde turns the camera back to Lincoln. "Anyways… by the time you're able to see this, I'll…" the boy gulped.

Suddenly, it dawned on Lily what this video was.

 _A farewell message._

The young girl found herself moved all of a sudden. Her face began to scrunch up, and her hands went to her chest, and began to squeeze, for her heart had begun to hurt.

"…Be gone… and I don't think you'll be able to remember me…" Lily saw Lincoln begin to tear up. The emotion in his eyes broke her heart. The video went blurry for a second. but Lily came to realize that it wasn't the video. It was her, slowly losing drops of tears through her eyes.

"But… I just wanted to tell you and everyone else… that I love you all, and that you're the best sisters and friends a guy could ask for." The only son of Lynn and Rita turns to face his female siblings and friend Ronnie Anne, and indicates for Clyde to join them.

Suddenly, the camera shakes, before stabilizing on a tripod. Lily saw Clyde run over to Lincoln's side. Lincoln had one last thing to say.

"Thanks for everything you guys, really… thank you!"

The girls all broke down, as every single one of their faces had two watery streams of tears roll down. They all rushed towards their only brother, pulling him into an immense hug, with none of them showing any signs of letting go.

Without any words, the two friends, Ronnie Anne and Clyde joined the massive hug, both with tears rolling down their faces. The video ended, its final frame a claustrophobic, loving group hug, with the dying young boy hugging his loving sisters and loyal friends.

When the video ended, Lily found herself sobbing. Her brother, the one she never knew, had sent her message from beyond the grave, as death knocked at his door.

Soon, the sobbing got louder and stronger, as Lily suddenly started to see flashes and glimpses of her brother, from the primordial recesses of her mind. Memories she had forgotten, of her days as an infant, suddenly poured into her mind's eye. Lincoln playing peek-a-boo with her as a baby, Lincoln rocking her crib gently as she went to sleep, Lincoln holding her in his arms and lightly whispering "I love you, Lily." Finally, the strong emotions gave way to a full break down, as Lily fell to the floor in tears. It felt... like a powerful mix of different emotions. She felt sadness and confusion and pain and relief, all at the same time. But there was one emotion that felt stronger within her than any other, one emotion that she was sure was there, that she felt more now than at any other point in her life:

Love.

She continued crying and crying, almost as if she was the baby in that video.

"Li-Lincoln… I…I love you t-too."

"And…and… I don't want to forget you."

Lily continued crying for a considerable amount of time, as wave after wave of feeling washed over her. After what felt like an eternity for her, she felt an arm on her shoulder. She looked up to see a white-haired youth, about her age.

"Lincoln?" she asked the figure.

The figure gave her a blank look. "Mommy," the figure called in a more feminine voice than the one she heard in the video, "Why is Aunt Lily crying?"

Aunt Lily?

The young girl wiped the tears from her eyes. They continued coming, but now she had a better look at the figure.

It was Liberty Loud, the white-haired daughter of Lori.

"Liberty, go play with your sister. NOW!" ordered a sterner, older voice, that Lily recognized as her sister Lori.

As Liberty left to find Linka, Lori helped her sister off the ground. She saw that Lily was in great emotional turmoil, and sat her down on the couch.

"Lily, what's wrong?" Lori asks in a sweet, motherly tone, full of caring. Her time as a mother and as a sister had given her more than enough to deal with this. And the fact that Lily was of a close age to her daughters provided her some idea of how to handle this delicate situation.

Lily continued to cry, trying as hard as she could to speak. After a few moments, she wiped her tears off of her red face, and made multiple attempts to clear her throat.

"I…I watched the video. The one that… that Lincoln made me… before he…" her voice trailed off again as her throat prevented her from speaking.

Lori knew, even without looking at the screen of the computer, what the young girl was talking about. The video they had made on Lily's birthday, before Lincoln had passed.

"Come here, come here," Lori spoke so softly, almost like a whisper. As Lily embraced her, Lori began to rub her back, hoping to make the young girl feel better.

After a while, Lily stopped crying. The tears either stopped coming, or they couldn't keep coming anymore. Lori knew that the first thing Lily needed was a glass of water. As she set the clear cup in front of Lily, the young girl nodded in appreciation, and took a long drink from the glass. She felt rehydrated, that the glass made up for the great amount of water that had been lost.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Lily nodded.

"Lori, I want to ask something. And I want the best answer you can give me."

Lori gave a short nod, encouraging her to go on.

"Tell me, what was Lincoln like?"

Lily expected the same answer as usual.

To her surprise, Lori gave her a soft smile.

"Lincoln was… well, he was a lot of things. It seemed like, back when he was around, every week he would end up in some comic situation. He won a limo by eating mustard, saved frogs from being dissected, took multiple dates to a dance he didn't want to go to. He smashed Lisa's chemicals, once, and started hallucinating about this other world where I married Clyde." She ended with a bit of a laugh.

Lily gave a little giggle too.

"He was also funny, kind, determined and… himself, really. He was... he was Lincoln Loud, the best brother any of us could have ever asked for."

Lily nodded, and then looked to the ground, sighing. " I just wish… that I could have known him."

Lori held Lily even tighter.

"Lily… don't you dare say that you never knew him. The last years of his life, he spent with you, loving and caring for you, sometimes more than anyone else. He tried to get you into his hobbies, once, just so he could spend more time with you. And another time, he dressed as a fox and offered to sing and dance for you for all eternity, just so you could smile. It doesn't matter if he lived to be eleven, twelve, thirteen or ninety. He always loved you, and you always brought a smile to his face. Otherwise… why would he... why would he have made you that video?" Lori said, ending with a choke and a slight tremble. It seemed like this was getting to be too much for her.

Lily looked at her older sister. For as much as stabilizer she always was, she was very much prone to emotional bouts herself. Life forced her into responsibility, Lily realized, and of course, a responsibility for Lincoln. It must have hurt her much more when he died.

Lily did the only thing she thought she could do for her sister; give her a hug.

Lori felt the squeeze, smiled, and reciprocated. After a small while, the two girls broke up. Lori stood, but not before giving Lily a kiss on the forehead.

"Now, I have to get going," Lori pointed at the car outside, "Bobby has been patiently waiting for me, and I shouldn't make him wait. There's a meeting for work in New York, so can you ask Mom and Dad to watch Linka and Liberty until we get back?"

Lily nodded. "Of course. And sorry if I made you late for your meeting."

Lori smiled at her. "Don't worry Lily. Over my life, I've learned that family is the most important thing in life. If the people at the meeting can't appreciate that, then…"

Lori gave a very graphic and detailed description of what they could do to themselves in that scenario. After the waves of sad and hurt that had washed over her in the past few minutes, Lily welcomed a small giggle.

After her older sister left, Lily was left with Linka and Liberty in the living room. She looked at them, and it really was remarkable how much they resembled her deceased brother.

"So… what do you two like to do?"

Linka smiled. "I like video games," she said excitedly.

"Me too," added her twin.

Lily smiled. _Lori was right._

 _They really were like Lincoln._

"Wait just a second," Lily said as she ran over to a box of games near the television. She grabbed a video game from the box and showed it to the girls.

"Muscle Fish? I never heard of that, Aunt Lily," said Linka.

"First, stop calling me Aunt. I'm practically your age. Second," she paused, then gave a soft smile, "this was a game that was played by someone dear to us. Someone who... was a lot like you. So, will you at least try it?"

Linka and Liberty beamed in approval. "Okay," they said in unison.

Lily felt a bit of weight be taken off her chest as she played the game with the two.

It almost felt like... like she was with Lincoln.

* * *

That night, Lily dreamt that she was a baby again, being held by one of her sisters, as she watched a white haired boy play with her sisters in the sunset of the sea.

19-8-5 14-5-22-5-18 6-15-18-7-15-20 20-8-1-20 4-1-25


End file.
